Although admitting that Cricket West Indies (CWI) had to take full responsibility for West Indies’ disappointing performance in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, chief executive officer Johnny Grave has declared he will not be resigning.
He declared on Tuesday night, just over 24 hours after CWI’s announcement that head coach Phil Simmons was stepping down on the heels of the Windies’ first-round exit from the tournament, that he was no quitter.
Appearing on the Mason and Guest show on VOB 92.9 in Barbados, Grave was asked whether he would be in the CEO position when the West Indies begin their 2024 T20 World Cup campaign.
“I am not in control of that. My contract, as I said, runs out in June 2023. But am I a quitter? Am I gonna resign? No, I’m not,” he replied.
“Whether that contract gets renewed will be down to the board of directors of Cricket West Indies,” added Grave who was appointed in January 2017.
In a shocking turn of events, West Indies crashed out of the World Cup after defeats to Scotland and Ireland in the qualifiers. The two-time champions, who needed to win at least two games to reach the Super 12 stage, only produced a victory over Zimbabwe.
Grave said the fault of the regional side’s disappointing showing could not be placed on the shoulders of any single individual or group.
“The fault is, I think, a collective responsibility because the players and the team are an output of the system and ultimately that system has on the highest possible stage, in the worst possible situation, failed,” he said.
“I think it’s the time for everyone connected with West Indies cricket to reflect on how the game has changed how it’s moved on, and what we need to do to compete on a global stage because our system is not producing winning teams for many, many years now across all formats and both in the women’s and men’s game. So, we need to do some soul-searching, dig deep and collectively come forward to get our system back up to what needs to be, which is world-class because if it’s not world-class we can’t expect our teams to be.”
In response to a direct question about what blame he would take as an administrator, Grave said CWI as the organization ultimately responsible for the West Indies teams would have to “take full responsibility for their performances”.
“We’re all bitterly disappointed… It’s the worst possible outcome that none of us wanted. So, it’s been a difficult period for us, for the players, for the fans. Now, as I said, we’ve got to get over that disappointment very, very quickly and get even more energetic and focused on how we work to improve our system across the Caribbean to produce better players and better teams.”
Grave could not say whether any other administrator or member of the management team intended to resign or would lose their jobs as a result of the T20 World Cup debacle.
-CMC
